After making a big deal of my birthday as I always do, and finding it strange that my colleagues let their birthdays pass without as much as a word, I have discovered some reasons why people here do not celebrate their birthdays….
· Many, especially the elderly, do not know their age or actual birthday. It is only recently that people are registering births, and so getting a birth certificate. It is interesting when doing surveys that require someone’s age and you ask things like “were you born before or after Independence” or “was it during the harvest or the dry season” to try to narrow down the dates and months
· There are no ovens, and so you can’t make a birthday cake. My driver declared he would one day love to celebrate his birthday. We discussed this and I told him how we celebrate by singing over a cake. He suggested maybe praying over a pot of stew for him.
· The things that are celebrated here seem more communal. Like the Harvest, or Easter/Christmas/Eid rather than celebrating the individual.
· Entertaining with Ghanaians from my experience is a big deal and you can’t just ask a few people for dinner. A friend of mine invited a few people from work for drinks to celebrate. The whole office got wind of it, turned up, ate, took takeaway containers home of food for their family and put it on the bill, and the whole thing turned out to be hundreds of dollars! So much for close friends celebrating someone special.
· But Ghanaians know how to dance. If you want to have a party, put on some Azonto dance music, or anything Ghanaian and you’ve got a house of quality dancers busting it out. This may be the best way to celebrate a birthday. Dancing til you can dance no more. Maybe to some classics such as ‘hey shorty it’s your birfday’ – Ghanaians are short after all….. ;)
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